Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-06-16
GENESIS OF THE HORSE.
An English Scientists Comments on IL
Prehistorie Equine Species.

An English SCIENTISTS comments on
Prehistoric Equine Species.
An English naturalist, writing upon
the horse of Great Britain. traces the
ancestry of the present species back
beyond the historic age, and as to spe-
cies now extinct, refers to species hav-
ing more than one hoof to each limb.
The same is true of America Fossil
diminutive horses have been found
with four hoofs or toes, like those OF
cattle. In relation to these prehistoric
horses in Great Britain, our authority
says:
Far back before the age of man
there lived upon the earth species of
the horse family, long ago extinct
This horse was a little larger than a
sheep, and some say not larger than
terrier dog. These little horses as far
as we know from the fossil remains,
were the beginning of the horse tribe
They had every outline of horses, and
the anatomy also, with the exception
that the feet were the most peculiar.
Instead of having one hoof on each
leg. as our modern horse, this di:nin-
utive pony was the possessor of four,
making sixteen hoofs in all. As the
horse developed, these hoofs, or
speaking more correctly, these toes,
all disappeared, leaving our modem
horse to walk upon the end of one toe
In order to clearly understand the
manner of the gradual disappearance
of these toes little anatomy may be
tolerated Starting with the hand of a
man as standard, the thumb, which
is really a finger, the index is called
the second, the next third. fourth and
fifth. It has been observed that when
this order is in any way interfered with,
the first TO disappear is the thumb or
the first finger. This is noticed in dogs.
thumb. So it was with the little
horses No remains can be found pos
sessing the first finger. The earliest
had the second, third, fourth and
fifth toes present, all of which reached
the ground and were disable. These
| toes all disappeared until none was
left except the third, on which the
horse of the present day walks The
| one just preceding our modern horse
had three toes, the second, third and
| fourth. but the outside ones did not
| reach the ground and accordingly were
| not disable. They were up little
distance on the leg, like the hoofs of
deer, and only remain on our modern
| horse in what is known as splint bones
lit occasionally happens that horses,
as well as other animals, will breed
hack and a monstrosity, as it appears
to us, will be the result In England,
some time ago, horse was born which
had two hoofs on each foot and was
] carried about the country rs curiosity
| 1t was a reference, or index OF what
sort of feet the species once had just
| why they were at first in possession of
such feet is matter of conjecture Ii
| may have been because the ground was
| soft and marshy, and the extra feet
gave more surface for resistance.
and as the earth grew firmer
| no necessity existed for SO many toes,
SO that by disuse they began to dissap-
| pear With the notifications Of the
| the feet the horse increased in weight
| and strength, getting ready to help
man bear his burdens and progress IN
| the line of civilization As itincreas-
| ed in size, through mans interference
| and culture, it also increased In men
, tai capacity, until one of the most In
| telligent, docile. useful creatures ever
given by the Supreme Being to man is
the animal almost human-the horse.
-FdTns, Field and !StockHd1.